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Food stamp benefits were reduced the first of this month by $36 per month for a family of four. Not because families don't need the extra food money anymore, but because conservative politicians have more concern over national debt and deficits than they do hungry U.S. families....or at least, that's what those conservative politicians say by their actions.

The reduction came as a provision of Obama's 2009 stimulus bill expired. Because conservative politicians are more concerned about percentage debt-to-GDP ratios than hungry people, those politicians refused to renew the food stamp provision. Nothing says Happy Holidays quite like taking food away from poor families just as the holiday season kicks off.

I realize Rush Limbaugh is an easy target. But something he said yesterday is indicative of a larger national political problem that affects both sides of the aisle.

As expected, the settlement-expansion prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Bibi Netanyahu, did his best to derail the tentative Iranian deal announced over the weekend. "A historic mistake" is what the Israeli leader said after the deal became public.

As they look ahead to the 2014 midterms, Republicans have announced their intention to focus entirely on the roll out problems of Obamacare. Anagram man and RNC Chair, Reince Preibus boldly proclaimed that Republicans would proudly "tattoo" the roll out problems on Obama's forehead....even though Obama will not be up for election.....ever....again.

Speaker Boehner has informed that the House would do very little, if anything, the rest of the year for fear that they might interrupt the hysterical-roll Republicans believe they are on in bashing and mocking the healthcare law's implementation.

Governance is not a high priority for Republicans. The GOP's primary message has always been, "limited, ever-smaller government".....which has led Speaker Boehner recently to quip that Republicans in the House should be judged not by how many laws they pass but on how many they repeal.

Leading up to the 2014 midterms next November, Republicans have only one objective: Keep harp, harp, harping on the problems associated with the implementation of Obamacare. According to CNN, Republicans will seek to create "a groundswell of opposition"....

With enough creativity, Senate Republicans discovered that the filibuster could not simply prevent new laws from being enacted, it could also be used to effectively repeal laws protecting workers and regulating Wall Street. By refusing to confirm nominees to lifetime appointments on the federal bench, they could also ensure that some of the nation’s most powerful courts remained in Republican hands. And looming over all of this is the next Supreme Court vacancy. If Senate Republicans will use the filibuster today to keep their grip on the nation’s second most powerful court, imagine what they’ll do if a justice retires.

There's a diversionary, change-the-subject meme out there that is wearing out it's welcome with yours truly. As the faux-complaint from the conservative side of things goes, if any conservative or Republican disagrees with Barack Obama's policies they are accused of being a racist for doing so.

I was reminded of this nonsense again yesterday when I heard a caller to the EIB Network's Rush Limbaugh program. The lady caller was beside herself and nearly in tears over being called a racist for disagreeing with Obama's policies...."it's just so hurtful", she said.

Have you heard the new George Zimmerman "stand your ground while pointing your gun at your girlfriend story"? Good stuff. Should make Sean Hannity pee himself a little in vicarious glee. Not to mention Buckeye Firearms....who were so aggrieved by "gun control" monsters that they raised $12,000 for George so's he could rebuild his arsenal. Good job guys...and extra special credit for having such good judgment.

The micro-managing hysteria campaign now in full swing by those whose job description in 21st century America is to comfort the powerful and afflict the powerless has reached nauseating heights in the last week. The Affordable Care Act, a law to confront the ever-increasing and destructive nature of a healthcare industry totally out of control, is now being set forward as possible grounds for impeachment of a Democratic president.

Is the ACA another Katrina, or is it more like Iraq? Is the ACA more like Watergate or Iran-contra? When did Obama know he was lying about Americans being able to keep their junk insurance plans and how wide is Obama's conspiracy to destroy the U.S.? No doubt Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa will get to the bottom of it.

I was pleased this week, and surprised, to see this AB Journal opinion piece suggesting organized crime leaders conspired to have John F. Kennedy assassinated. The writer even references the authors I referenced awhile back on the blog, Waldron and Hartmann.

It's been 50 years this month since JFK was murdered in Dallas. I was in 9th grade gym class at the time the killing was announced.....they sent us all home from school that day. I watched the murder of mob stooge Lee Harvey Oswald by gangster Jack Ruby live on black and white teevee as well.

106,000, 27,000, 11, and 36. 106,000 ACA signups in October, 27,000 of those signups are from the Healthcare.gov website, 11 is the number of states running their own exchanges that signed people up in October, 36 is the number of states that are not running their own exchanges.

What those numbers distill down to is this: 80% of all ACA signups in October came from states where leaders took responsibility for creating their own state health insurance exchanges. Those 11 states, out of a total of 14 who set up their own exchanges, I'll call the rugged individualist, bootstrapper states. States where leaders refused to be dependent on the work of the federal government. States where leaders took responsibility for the healthcare insurance futures of their citizens and dismissed any lazy, welfare approach which relied exclusively on the efforts of the federal government.

It is extremely important for the conservative movement in America to convince voters and would-be voters that corporate media, aka "lamestream" media, "drive-by" media, etc.....are biased in favor of Democrats and liberalism. It's not true, of course, but as we've witnessed in the Tea-GOP manufactured shitestorms over Fast and Furious, the IRS, and (my god) Benghazi....truth has nothing to do with today's conservative movement.

But it's the perception conservatives are after anyway, not reality or truth. Repeating, ad naseum, that corporate media is liberal is how perception is created.....right or wrong. And so, every big name in conservative circles plus every elected conservative and Republican are duty bound to repeat at every opportunity how the big bad corporate media are hopelessly liberal and are always trying to make Democrats look good and Republicans look bad.

The Obama administration's jackbooted regulator-thugs in the FDA don't believe in freedom. This was made clear last week when the FDA thugs banned yet another freedom food.....the yummable, hydrogen injected, trans-fat.

Under a president or a government agency where "real America" freedom was respected and revered.....trans-fat would still be bubbling away in those vats where doughnuts....and deep-fried Oreo cookies.....are normally prepared. But no....not under Obama, the freedom killer. Not under President Nanny and his meddling quasi-communist agencies.

Near the beginning of her 33-minute speech Palin mentioned her new book, “Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas.”

“I say in a very jolly, Christmassy way, ‘Enough is enough,’” Palin told the crowd in Des Moines. “I say enough is enough of this politically correct police out there that is acting to erode our freedom to celebrate and exercise our faith.”

The very first amendment attached to our Constitution begins this way.....

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;.....

I take those words at face value. Government should neither prohibit the free exercise of religion by citizens NOR participate in any way in establishing religion by way of law or precedent.

When The Reverend was in the first grade in the 1950's, each school day began with a class recitation of the Christian "Lord's Prayer" and the Pledge of Allegiance. That was approximately 1955. Yes, I was there before evil people "removed god from our classrooms."

Eight million U.S. citizens who qualify for the ACA's Medicaid expansion will not be allowed to sign up for Medicaid. Twenty five states have told those who qualify for Medicaid under the ACA that even though they qualify for the expanded Medicaid program, they can't participate.

That's 8 million people who are being denied access to bare bones Medicaid through absolutely no fault of their own. 8 million poor working Americans in 25 states will remain uninsured because of purely political stuntsmanship reasons by GOP state leaders.

....one main reason we’ve done so little about unemployment is the preaching of deficit scolds, who have wrapped themselves in the mantle of long-run responsibility — which they have managed to get identified in the public mind almost entirely with holding down government debt.

This never made sense even in its own terms. As some of us have tried to explain, debt, while it can pose problems, doesn’t make the nation poorer, because it’s money we owe to ourselves. Anyone who talks about how we’re borrowing from our children just hasn’t done the math.

Libertarian Ron Paul called for "nullification" of Obamacare by the states. States should just defiantly ignore the new federal law, Paul told a group rallying for Ken Cuccinelli the other day. The former lawmaker didn't explain that nullification is actually illegal.....but I'm sure his response would be..freedom, or something similar.

The word nullification is a remnant word from pre-Civil War days. Prior to the southern states terrorist attack on the United States of America, those states "nullified" any federal law they didn't like. The Supremacy Clause of the Constitution makes it crystal clear that states have no authority to nullify federal law.....but to the freedom Rebels that didn't matter.

In short, Cristie has been a failure, at least for New Jersey. Yet, today, the guy Romney called Pufferfish and rejected as too risky to be his running mate, will easily win re-election in the blue state.

When competition is the game, it's always best to know and understand your opponent. The only way to minimize surprises and neutralize your opponent's strengths is to have a solid, non-rose-colored glasses comprehension of what to expect from your rival....before the competition begins.

When it comes to being prepared to take on his Republican opponents, President Obama has been naive. As a result of not fully understanding the bad-faith of his political opponents, the nation's economy, and the plight of America's poor and vulnerable have had, and will continue to have, severe damage done to them.

All politicians speak in coded language at times....but Republican politicians, and their media servants, use coded language much more frequently than Democratic politicians.

The reason that is the case is simple. Republican policies are unpopular with the American electorate. Conservatives and Republicans will disagree with that statement, but that doesn't matter because it's still true. On virtually every major issue....cutting entitlements, confronting climate change, immigration reform, gay rights, raising taxes on the wealthy, gun regulations and so forth....Americans favor the Democratic approach and reject the Republican approach.

Here at the Blog of Mass Destruction, The Reverend takes pride (and much joy) in blowing up conventional wisdom accounts of events affecting our nation. The violence at a Benghazi quasi-CIA outpost on September 11, 2012 is one of those events.

Spearheaded by Groundswell, the secretive activist group led by Ginnie Thomas and Edwin Meese, among others....Benghazi has been chosen as the tool of choice for conservatives/Republicans to stop the inevitable electoral momentum that will sweep Hillary Clinton into the White House in 2016.

There are folks who actually care about the truth, and there are those who don't. For those who do, I recommend these two articles which explain the tomfoolery behind the latest GOP-lie-of-the-week.

Soon, Rep Darrell Issa will be holding House hearings over how Obama knew that the terrorist insurance companies were going to jihad our health insurance policies....when he has been telling us all along that if we liked our policies, we could keep them. Witnesses will no doubt testify that Obama even sent representatives onto the Sunday teevee shows immediately after the Affordable Care Act was passed to knowingly lie about those terrorist insurance company policy cancellations. All so Obama could continue destroying America.